#tbmc

[creature-wizard]

A warning for trauma survivors looking for online support

You may have come across the acronym "RAMCOA", which stands for "ritual abuse, mind control, and organized abuse."

If you search the Internet for RAMCOA, you might come across a result like this:

If you click the link, you'll be taken to a site that briefly describes what RAMCOA supposedly is, with content like:

MC - Mind Control. A shortened form of TBMC, standing for Torture Based Mind Control. MC is also known as programming, where victims are repeatedly tortured starting at a very young age to intentionally cause a system of dissociated parts that function perfectly to suit the abusers' needs.

alpha : a base program, one of the very first implemented. it trains the victim's mind to accept every order given by handlers willingly. parts with alpha programming will often have no will of their own, and very little personality outside of following orders.

aiw : alice in wonderland. typically split into 3 different sections : black alice, white alice, and crazy alice. ideally, a system scripted with aiw would have all three. white alice makes sure the system forgets the trauma, black alice makes the system feel like theyll be a danger to others if they remember the trauma, and crazy alice makes the system think theyre making it up or going insane if they ever remember it.

Literally all of this comes from a conspiracy theory - specifically, the Project Monarch alter programming conspiracy. It was developed and pushed by far right conspiracy theorists. Most of what people run into specifically traces back to Fritz Springmeier, a man who claimed in the 90's that the fight for gay rights was part of a plot to enthrone the antichrist in the year 2000. The Project Monarch conspiracy theory was always adjacent to the Satanic Panic, if not a somewhat niche part of it. If you start checking citations, you will find many of these people citing Svali, a conspiracy theorist who gets a lot of her material from Springmeier. (Example 1, example 2.)

This is no accident. The term RAMCOA was created by the International Society for the Study of Trauma and Dissociation (ISSTD), which was created by and for psychologists who believed in the myths promoted during the Satanic Panic.

The RA part comes from "satanic ritual abuse," which was coined by Dr. Lawrence Pazder of Michelle Remembers (cw for descriptions of horrible abuses) fame. Lawrence Pazder is the man who effectively started the Satanic Panic. It cannot be overstated that Pazder, now a known malpractitioner, was considered the expert on ritual abuse during this time.

The MC part comes from "trauma-based mind control," which was coined to refer to the alleged abuses inflicted in Project Monarch. Parts of this conspiracy theory that can't be traced back to Fritz Springmeier can usually be traced back to Cathy O'Brien and Mark Phillips, two other (really racist) conspiracy theorists.

Ultimately, the entire conspiracy theory is constructed from tropes that go back to The Protocols of the Learned Elders of Zion (a known antisemitic hoax), blood libel, and early modern witch panic.

Searching the Internet for RAMCOA resources, ritual abuse, or trauma-based mind control will always bring you to conspiracy theorists.

(Also, the term OEA, which stands for "organized extreme abuse," will lead you to conspiracy theorists as well.)

So yeah, if you're looking for support, be very wary of this stuff. It will absolutely not help you heal; just the opposite.

[outnumberedsins]

What "Counts" as OEA?

I saw a post that disgruntled me enough to want to talk about this, so here we are. There seems to be a heavy amount of misinformation on what "counts" as OEA, often excluding adult victims and non-programmed victims. So, within this post, we'll go over what the terms "OA, MC, and RA" mean, as well as commonly construed myths.

Organized Abuse

all-encompassing.

Organized abuse is a wide term that includes experiences of ritual abuse and mind control but is in no way exclusive to them. Often, only organized child sexual abuse is mentioned, which leaves out a lot of experiences it includes.

The most simple definition of organized abuse is "Abuse that involves a number of people doing something together in a pre-planned and/or structured way, rather than acting alone." In short terms, abuse done by multiple people in a planned way. [1]

All groups under the RAMCOA/OEA label will fall under this category. This includes, but is not limited to, Cults, Trafficking Rings, Labor Camps, "Troubled Teen" Camps, Intra-Familial Organized Abuse, and other experiences that fall under this definition. This includes victims indoctrinated into cults, trafficked, or otherwise abused as adults, as well as children born or brought into it. Location of the abuse (at home, in a church, at school, at a daycare, etc) doesn't matter, and someone does not have to go through ritual abuse or mind control to have experienced organized abuse.

Ritual Abuse

not inherently satanic.

Ritual abuse is a term often confused with SRA, or "Satanic Ritual Abuse," an outdated and often harmful label for forms of organized extreme abuse. Not all forms of organized abuse are ritual abuse.

Ritual abuse can be defined as "Abuse that occurs in a context where symbols or activities have superstitious, supernatural, or religious connotations. It is organised, often involving multiple perpetrators, and the abuse often happens as part of a rite or ceremony." Alternatively, the word 'ritual' refers to "a rite, ceremony or pseudo- religious service which involves a series of actions performed in a fixed order and/or at certain times; something that is done in the same way whenever a particular situation occurs." [1] [2]

Because of this, ritual abuse can be defined while including spiritual themes and non spiritual themes. So, many definitions include other forms of abuse that is ritualized/specifically repeated in nature, such as on a specific day or time or in a specific order.

This type of abuse is most dominated in literature by satanic overtones, once again from the term SRA. However, this is not exclusive to satanic cults. Any group based on a belief system or using other reoccurring themes/abuse can perpetrate ritual abuse. Though ritual abuse is also more commonly linked with mind control and child abuse, programming and age have no impact on if an experience is ritual abuse or not.

Survivors of ritual abuse include things like ritualistic ceremonies, games, symbols, set-ups, abuse on specific days/holidays, abuse in a specific order, etc as common experiences.

Mind Control

programming and beyond

Mind control tends to be the term that receives the most problems, as many people tend to only think of programming when hearing it. However, MC is not exclusive to programming survivors, and many types of MC have been recognized.

A good definition of MC is "Methods of thought reform to force submission or information from enemies and victims, or to indoctrinate and increase cooperation in members and captors," and is a synonym to coersive persuasion, defined as "attempts to force people to change beliefs, ideas, attitudes or behaviors using psychological pressure, undue influence, threats, anxiety, and/or intimidation." [3] [4]

Programming is an example of the far end of mind control, a severe form of conditioning. However, things such as cult and religious indoctrination, psychic driving, terrified submission, etc, are all also forms of MC that can occur within organized abuse. MC is not exclusive to child victims, as most forms of MC can be performed at any age.

Thank you for reading. If you have any questions or additions, feel free to send an ask or reply to this post. A reminder that I am not a professional, I am flawed, and I am just doing my best.

[requiemsystem]

COMMUNICATING WITH ALTERS

building communication as a system can be difficult, and there are many different ways to communicate with alters, so i want to talk about some of the different ways and give some advice and examples in this post INTERNAL COMMUNICATION internal communication can come in many different forms, such as passive influence, speaking to other alters in your head, sharing images between each other, etc. passive influence is a common form of internal communication that often happens unintentionally, some ways to recognize when this is occurring is identifying a feeling that feels "other", something that feels like its not coming from you. this can be another thought, another emotion, another desire, etc. and try to identify who it could be coming from. this can help to improve communication, you can also ask if anyone is influencing you or around front at the time and see if you get a response speaking to other alters internally is another form of internal communication that often takes a bit more effort, the best way i can describe it is like passing thoughts back and forth. the other thoughts do not come from you, and its like having a conversation with someone else in your mind. this can be difficult to do without a lot of work, but a good way to start doing this could be asking if anyone has any input on your daily activities and just see if anyone has anything to say! you may get an answer, or you may not, and either way is okay! it takes time to build any form of communication EXTERNAL COMMUNICATION external communication is often easier than internal communication, and is often done in the form of leaving notes for other alters when they front. these notes can be left in a private discord server, in a phone notes app, in a journal, or anywhere likely to be checked by other alters the best advice i have for building external communication is to leave a note in a place that you know other alters would check, and just wait for a reply when you switch. once you have established some form of communication, then you can move the notes to wherever you want to permanently keep them, whether this be a notes app, private server, or wherever else. communicate this to other alters, so they know where to check OTHER ADVICE some alters may not be ready to communicate yet, this is okay. it comes with time. do not force an alter who isnt ready to communicate to communicate with you, as you may not be ready to know what they hold or meet them yet for a number of reasons if you are first meeting the alter(s) you are trying to communicate with, it may help to write some form of introduction where you introduce yourself and ask about them. keep in mind they may not be willing to share information about themselves yet and this is okay once you establish communication, it will take some level of maintaining. it is a consistent effort and not just a one-time thing - grey

[planesofdelusion]

programming things that suck:

programmed migraines

programmed seizures

programmed arousal

flood programs

spin programs

God, everything about being programmed is awful

[cathulhu-collective]

one thing that is really devastating about being programmed is the self blame and self hatred that it can accompany. I feel like a freak for some of my thoughts and some of my desires, they're disturbing to the degree that the dissociation is there to push it as far away as humanely possible, to convince myself I don't have any such desires. for example, a huge part of me doesn't want to separate from my handlers, or live a normal life. but that can't be right. the things being done to me aren't okay. why am I attracted to them? to pain, abuse? why does it make me feel safe? well I know why, but it's still devastating.

[retiredchildsoldier]

Me, a survivor of child sex trafficking, in need of an insult:

"I lost my virginity before you, poser!"

[ratinacoat]

Why people are against RAMCOA

If you scroll through posts in the system community you have most likely seen a handful of people posting about RAMCOA being a bad term. Here is why!

Contrary to what many people think when they see these posts; those people are not denying that your trauma is real. When people are saying RAMCOA isn't real, they're talking about what that term actually means. RAMCOA is misused and misunderstood a lot on the internet. How? I'll go into that.

Where it came from

RAMCOA (Ritual Abuse, Mind Control, and Organized Abuse) is a term that used to be used to be called SRA (Satanic Ritual Abuse) and is now called OEA (Organized and Extreme Abuse)

These terms were created by the ISSTD (International Society for the Study of Trauma and Dissociation), an organization that studies trauma and dissociation, if the name didn't give that away. Each of these terms were used at different times, replacing one another on the ISSTD's SIG (Special Interest Groups) page. In order, it went: SRA, RAMCOA, OEA

SRA was created during a point in time called the Satanic Panic. The Satanic Panic is still going on today but isn't as talked about anymore. It is/was a moral panic about Satanic cults that had over thousands of victims. The thing is, those cults never had proof of existing. Despite thousands of accusations of murder being made, nothing was ever found to prove this. The Satanic Panic is considered a conspiracy theory.

Over time it became clear to groups such as the FBI, CIA, and general law enforcement that these claims weren't actually true, or at least the stories were twisted. FBI Special Agent, Kenneth V. Lanning stated that "ritual" child abuse was not something people should fear due to that lack of evidence despite 50,000 claims of children falling victims to these cults being made.

Antisemitism

When you look at what RAMCOA means on social media, the words alone, and simple definitions, it's not easy to see the antisemitism behind it. However, looking into what the term describes, is used for, and the history of it allows you to see just how the term is antisemitic.

To understand, we need to first go back to the Satanic Panic and what that was. Moral panic about Satanic cults with no proof behind them. During the Satanic Panic, many people were falsely accused of being members of these cults, sacrificing and abusing children, ECT with no proof behind it. Now, we move on to another topic; Blood Libel.

Blood Libel is an antisemitic conspiracy theory that has existed for a very long time. It is the belief that Jewish people are sacrificing non-Jewish children (typically Christians) to use their blood for rituals during/close to Passover. There have been accusations of these things made on Jewish people with no evidence of them what so ever.

Sound familiar?

This is exactly what was happening during the Satanic Panic. The only difference is that they are not out right saying it was Jewish people. However, take into consideration that hardcore Christians often call anything or anyone that doesn't follow their religion "Satanic" and investigators have noticed that within the SRA/RAMCOA conspiracy theories as well.

The Satanic Panic, SRA/RAMCOA, and Blood Libel all directly connect to one another in terms of belief, theories, and actions even if they don't explicitly state that. Conspiracy theorists don't want you to doubt them for any reason, they want you to share their beliefs. Making their antisemitism less explicit helps them do that.

What's wrong about using it

You can't separate something like this from its origin and meaning. It's a harmful term directly connected to these conspiracy theories rooted in antisemitism. The ISSTD changed SRA to RAMCOA and RAMCOA to OEA but the meanings still stay the same. They still discuss "ritual abuse" and "mind control" in their OEA SIG.

The meanings have always stayed the same despite the names/acronyms changing. Members of the RAMCOA SIG were still a part of the SRA SIG and now moved on to the OEA SIG. They still use the term SRA within the SIG with certain members that have been around since the SRA SIG.

By using these terms you are labeling yourself with outdated/controversial terms (ritual abuse and mind control) that are directly connected to the antisemitic conspiracy theories that hurt Jewish people still. Normalizing the usage of these terms is harmful, it allows the conspiracy theorists to further push people away from associating the term with their wrong doings while they continue to do wrong. Jewish people have expressed their discomfort with this. They have expressed how unsafe they feel in the system community because of this.

You cannot call your blogs, servers, accounts, ECT a safe space for systems if that doesn't include Jewish systems.

Alternatives

Instead of using harmful terms such as RAMCOA or the outdated/controversial terms like ritual abuse and mind control, use the more common and correct terms to describe your abuse.

Institutional abuse

Religious abuse

Phycological abuse

Sexual abuse

Organized abuse (Not OEA)

Sadistic abuse

Cult abuse/survivor

Trafficking (survivor)

Some people have expressed concern that these downplay their experiences. Remind yourself that these terms are not specific to the severity. Any severity of physical abuse is still physical abuse. The term you use will never downplay your experiences. You don't need a term to tell other victims "I had it worse than you."

These terms are just more specific terms for abuse. If it helps you, put "severe" in front of the term you use. It may help you feel less like you're downplaying your experiences. But keep in mind that your experience stays the same no matter what. A term does not change what you went through.

Sources

Sources listed below show proof of connection between the ISSTD and RAMCOA, the things they believe, the psychiatrists from the SRA SIG being involved, Kenneth V. Lannings report on SRA, time lines of the Satanic Panic, and articles showing how Jewish people are being effected/how QAnon is a part of this.

Investigator's Guide to Allegations of "Ritual" Child Abuse

Blood Libel

The Satanic Panic in the Missouri General Assembly

RAMCOA SIG (Web Archive)

Ritual Abuse, Mind Control, & Organized Abuse Special Interest Group (RAMCOA SIG)

Ritual Abuse, Mind Control, & Organized Abuse (RAMCOA) SIG

QAnon, Blood Libel, and the Satanic Panic

America's Satanic Panic Returns - This Time Through QAnon

[ridibulous]

I'm having a bit of a normal one tonight so

• shoutout to hc-did systems who don't have a fucking clue what all their programs are or how exactly they work or how they're triggered and may constantly be living like they're walking on eggshells.

• shoutout to hc-did systems who have no fucking idea what the full extent of their trauma is and are terrified to figure out more and/or want to learn everything that happened so badly.

• shoutout to hc-did systems who don't know or understand everything about their innerworld. fuck it shoutout to hc-did systems who just Don't Know in general!

• shoutout to hc-did systems who don't have any "real" or "physical" proof of their ramcoa besides their own memories.

• shoutout to hc-did systems whos perpetrators never got a lick of punishment for what they did to you or others.

• shoutout to hc-did systems who actively want or are trying to get their perpetrators punished for what they did.

• shoutout to hc-did systems who can't have their perpetrators punished for what they did.

• shoutout to hc-did systems who might still be in danger. real or perceived.

this ramcoa shit is so confusing and exhausting and horrible and lonely and fucking (re)traumatizing and it's so hard. i'm tired I just want people to believe me sometimes but how much do I believe other people believe me when I share the sheer horrors that rear their ugly heads in our mind. from alters popping up or a memory just appearing out of nowhere to just whole somatic flashbacks. how much can we take? how much DID we take?

[ennieasys]

[creature-wizard]

A common element in conspiracy thinking is believing you can find the truth by filtering out the elements of any given conspiracy myth that you don't agree or vibe with and replace them with things that fit your own worldview.

An example of this are New Agers with progressive-leaning values who believe in stuff like reptilian aliens while discarding queerphobic conspiracy theories about homosexuality and transgender being part of the reptilian agenda. They decide that this anti-queer stuff is coming from disinfo agents or from people who just haven't raised their vibrational frequencies high enough.

It doesn't really cross their minds to ask themselves whether there's any actual evidence for the existence of reptilian aliens that holds up under critical examination, nor to deeply investigate the origins of the alien mythology they believe in. They just think that they can project whatever they want to believe onto it, and they're good.

Now don't get me wrong, it is good that they support trans and gay rights, and that they look at these queerphobic narratives and go, "hmm, that's not right." That is very good, and I am glad that they are out there pushing back against these hateful narratives. Just because someone isn't doing the work perfectly, doesn't mean it's nothing.

But the problem here is, the mythology itself was constructed by the kind of hateful people these folks claim to oppose. Today's reptilian alien mythology was put together by David Icke, combining ideas from Zechariah Sitchin, Alexander Hislop, and centuries' worth of antisemitic conspiracy theories. (Icke essentially said in The Biggest Secret that The Protocols of the Learned Elders of Zion are basically true if you swap out Jews for reptilians!)

Now of course, the nature of knowledge and discovery is that people who are on the right track can still be wrong about some things. But we don't just decide what they're right about and they're wrong about by picking out the bits that resonate with us or align with our politics and discarding the rest. We do it by demanding and conducting better research.

So just how do you conduct effective research? Well, for one thing you develop better information literacy. Here's a resource for that.

You develop your critical thinking skills. Here's a guide.

You learn to recognize unethical manipulation techniques.

You familiarize yourself with the characteristics of pseudoscience and the characteristics of conspiracy thinking.

You also familiarize yourself with how the scientific method works.

You can also look up any number of basic "how to research" guides. Here's one.

The kind of pick-and-choose behavior I talked about is what a lot of proponents of alter programming conspiracy theories do. They think that if they just filter out the stuff about the Illuminati and ancient satanic cults, then they've got the reality of the situation all figured out. It doesn't cross their minds that the fact that their favorite authors are quoting people who were found to be unethical or were outright conspiracy theorists should be sufficient to call the entire thing into question.

You don't get closer to the truth by picking and choosing what you want to believe.

You get closer to the truth through actual research and science, and accepting what the evidence suggests even when it doesn't validate your preconceptions.

[outnumberedsins]

Hot take, but I think the more recent OEA community very commonly forgets or excludes survivors who didn't go through severe MC or programming, despite those individuals likely being the most common victims. So, just a reminder, you don't have to be programmed to be an OA survivor.

[moonbeamsystem]

I love making intros on sp it's so FUNNN

[pink-devolve]

One of the worst parts of being a ramcoa survivor is not having a space to talk about your story, because it’s too upsetting for other people to hear about.

Not only can I not vent about it, but I can’t even talk about the things I went through. I’ve had two therapists drop me because they couldn’t handle it. One time when I was in the hospital, my nurse started crying and had to go home for the rest of the day. One of my ex partners broke up with me because they didn’t feel comfortable being with a 🚦 survivor. And I didn’t tell any of them the heavy details of my abuse. Just me surviving something I was forced into was too much for them.

And that’s not unique, every ramcoa survivor I know that has tried to find help for their trauma has had similar experiences.

I’m lucky enough to have finally found a therapist that knows how to treat me. And a week ago I said something that had happened to me, and idk what happened. He jumped and said “oh my god” like he just watched someone get killed. He immediately apologized, but it hurt. Why did I have to go through something that is so revolting to everyone.

[radq-bunn]

any transprogrammers want to program me?👉👈 im cute and easy to manipulate..!! bonus points if youre an adult map (trans, chono or alter) because im transaam

[divinefleshandwires]

I stared at death's door so many times I memorized every groove in its wood. I don't understand what kept me from walking through it. I guess I got lucky enough to make the right decisions. Luck played a huge part. I was lucky enough to have a home life, even with the problems I faced there. I don't think some of the others had that. I just wish there was an option for all of us to make it. It feels so unfair that I got to live.

[retiredchildsoldier]

Me when my programs I'm in denial about go off: